With cases abating, Valley’s first hotspot shows signs of recovery

According to J&K Information Department’s Covid bulletin on Monday, the UT had reported 879 cases.

Indian women wear masks and walk inside Government Medical College hospital in Jammu, India, Wednesday, March 11, 2020. (AP Photo/File)

No positive cases have been reported from the Hajin Tehsil in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district for over a week now — the tehsil is the Valley’s first Covid hotspot with 93 of 134 cases from the district.

The number of cases from Hajin in March had fuelled fears of cluster transmission and the administration had declared eight of the 36 villages under the tehsil as red zones.

Officials said on Monday that 74 patients of the 93 linked to the tehsil had been cured and discharged. The last case directly linked to Hajin was reported on May 3. A resident of the region had tested positive at a hospital in Srinagar on May 8, but officials said he had acquired the infection in the hospital.

“As per records, the curve has flattened in Hajin. We can say we have a controlled situation at the moment and it appears that the (transmission) chain has been broken,” Shahnawaz Bukhari, the nodal officer for Hajin told The Indian Express.

The first cases from Hajin were reported on March 25. Officials maintain that of the 93 cases from the tehsil, 51 cases were reported from the Gundi Jahangir area alone.

In Gundi Jahangir also, the cases have stopped for now, officials said.

“We saw the last case in Gundi Jahangir on April 30. We have conducted testing of hundreds of people in the village there and things are under control now,” said an official.

Speaking of the situation in Hajin, Bukhari said, “The reason of the present situation is that we conducted aggressive testing in two villages — which accounted for 71 of the 93 positive cases of Hajin.”

Officials are optimistic about the figures. “If we look at the numbers, we can say we have been able to contain the virus and also break the (transmission) chain. If the situation remains the same, we are expecting to soon have the tehsil free from the virus,” said an official.

Bukhari however, added that authorities would not lower their guard. “We don’t know what tomorrow holds,” he said.

According to J&K Information Department’s Covid bulletin on Monday, the UT had reported 879 cases. On Sunday, Srinagar district surpassed Bandipora to report the highest number of cases in the UT.